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March 2011

March 17, 2011

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day (and the upcoming Farm Babies event beginning April 1), a male Bactrian Camel calf is now on exhibit on the Northern Trail at the Minnesota Zoo. Born March 7 weighing a whopping 125 pounds, the calf – who hasn’t been named yet – has been kept offexhibit with his mother to ensure that he was healthy and gaining weight. Camels usually gain approximately two pounds per day, and will reach adult size (1600–1800 pounds and eight feet tall) in 3-4 years. The gestation period for Bactrian camels is just over one year. This is the fifth calf for mom “Sanya” and the eighteenth for dad “Turk.” The calf will nurse for a full year, will be independent at age four, and fully mature at age five.

Just last week, Aalborg Zoo keepers finally succeeded in separating a very muddy cub from mom Malik in the birth den for an overdue veterinary examination. Not surprisingly, mom and cub were not happy about this as evidenced by the cubs feisty resistance in these photos. However, the examination went swiftly taking only 4 minutes, during which time the cub was weighed (already 35lbs / 15kg!), the gender was determined (it's a boy!), and a DNA sample was obtained. The Aalborg Zoo explained "When the cub returned to mom, it didn't take long until it seemed as happy and adventorous as before the weird incident. Afterwards the zookeepers handfed the cub with a special treat: dried figs, and this offer wasn't refused."

Photo credits: Sussi Køber

More pictures and video of the cub playing outside below the fold, or see previous ZooBorns coverage of the little guy from March 1st and February.

March 16, 2011

ZooBorns was seeing double today when two Australian zoos shared pictures of their new langur babies within minutes of one another. Taronga Zoo announced the birth of an endangered, bright orange Francois Leaf Monkey, the first to be raised by its mother in Australia. The male infant was born to mother, ‘Saigon’, and father, ‘Hanoi’, and discovered cradled in its mother’s arms in the early morning of Saturday 30 January by zoo keepers who had been monitoring the pregnancy.

Taronga Zoo Primate Keeper, Roxanne Pellat, said: “Obviously we were all very relieved when we discovered Keo-co cradled in Saigon’s arms. He had been licked clean, was warm, alert and the two adult females began sharing the role of caring for him. This is exactly what we hoped to see as this birth is particularly significant.”

Meanwhile at the Adelaide Zoo, three-time Dusky Leaf Monkey mom, Flier, gave birth to a healthy little girl, who is already proving to be a very mischievous, cheeky monkey... she is in to everything and is always trying to go off exploring, meaning Flier is constantly chasing after her. She will lose that brilliant coloring by the time she's three months and will begin to turn grey to match the rest of her family.

Dusky Leaf Monkeys or Dusky Langurs are native to Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. In the wild the species is under threat from hunting for food, as is habitat loss and degradation due to expanding oil palm plantations, agriculture, and urbanization. In Peninsular Malaysia the animals are frequent victims of road-kill.

The San Diego Zoo welcomed a new Capybara on March 7. The baby was born to a first-time mother, Rose, and could be seen running around the exhibit just hours after it was born. Rose is taking great care of her offspring, which nurses several times a day. Animal care staff expects nursing to continue for another 15 weeks. In addition to nursing, the baby has already started eating solid foods, including broccoli and apple. Capybaras are born with incisor teeth and keepers have seen the baby chewing on branches and trees around the exhibit.

Some adorable newborn kittens at Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species have no idea just how special they are. Two African Black-Footed kittens, members of an endangered species rarely seen in captivity, are the first of their kind to be born from a frozen embryo via in-vitro fertilization. This ground-breaking birth is the latest advance in assisted reproduction for endangered species from Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans.

Photo credits: Audubon Institute

The youngsters, both males, were born to surrogate mother Bijou on February 13, 2011, but their story goes all the way back to 2003, when sperm was collected from a 6 year old male named Ramses in Omaha, Nebraska. Experts at the Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo Center for Conservation and Research – Reproductive Sciences Department froze the sperm and sent it to Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species. It was combined with an egg from Zora, a Black-Footed Cat living at Audubon research center, creating embryos in March, 2005. Those embryos were frozen for almost six years before being thawed and transferred to Bijou on December 7, 2010. Sixty-nine days later, the two kittens became the first of their species to be born as a result of in-vitro fertilization utilizing frozen/thawed sperm and a frozen/thawed embryo.

March 15, 2011

On February 10 Taiwan's Taipei Zoo welcomed four little Formosan Wild Boar hoglets. This subspecies of boar is native only to Taiwan. The little boars were born as part of a Taipei Zoo conseration program to protect the species, which has become increasingly rare as farmers allow their domestic pigs to roam free and interbreed with Formosan Boars. Zookeeper Chen Yan He, the Zoo's unofficial "pig nanny," has worked with a variety of pigs and boars in the past but says that the Formosan Boars are among the most gentle.

March 14, 2011

The legacy of Singapore Zoo’s most iconic resident, Ah Meng, continues to grow with the recent birth of her first great grandson earlier this year. Chomel, Ah Meng’s granddaughter, gave birth to the male Orangutan on 31 Jan at about 4.20am. Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) is inviting Singaporeans to pick his name via an online voting system on Facebook.

Photo credits: Bjorn Olesen / Singapore Zoo

The Zoology team at the Singapore Zoo has shortlisted four names for the newborn and is asking members of the public to choose their favourite. The names are:

1. Ah Boy: A common term of endearment for many boys at home in Singapore2. Bino: Meaning ‘Brave’ in Bahasa Indonesia3. Terang: Meaning ‘Bright’ in Malay4. Xing Xing: In Chinese, this means both ‘star’ and ‘ape

The contest on the WRS Facebook page is open to everyone who is a fan of the page. Voting will end 31 March 2011 and the name which earns the most number of ‘likes’ on Facebook will be the chosen name for the baby Orangutan.

Perth Zoo has had another breeding success with twin Pygmy Marmosets born on 19 January 2011. The infants were born to parents Mia and Mario and are now starting to venture off their parents' backs and explore their exhibit. Pygmy Marmosets are the world's smallest monkeys and adults grow to weigh under 5 ounces!

March 11, 2011

The Perth Zoo has successfully hand-reared four baby Numbats after keepers noticed they were not suckling and losing weight. Numbats are termite-eating marsupials from Western Australia. Native Species Breeding Program (NSBP) keeper Dani Jose says this was the first time Numbats had been hand-raised from such a young age. “The babies hadn’t yet opened their eyes and weighed less than 15 grams. At this young age, they look quite different from adult Numbats. They hadn’t developed their stripes yet and their snouts were short and snubby,” Ms Jose says.

Photo credits: Perth Zoo

“They were kept in the veterinary hospital in warm, quiet conditions and fed six times a day including in the middle of the night. They were fed a special milk formula for marsupials through a very small teat. We were very glad to see that they started to thrive and put on weight.” Caring for Numbats from such an early age meant keepers were able to see developmental changes that usually happen out of sight.“We discovered that their eyes open earlier than we previously thought. We also learned which milk formula worked best for them. The whole process was a new experience for us and has helped refine our knowledge.” explained Ms. Jose.

March 10, 2011

The San Francisco Zoological Society is proud to announce the birth of a female Queensland, Koala. This is the first Koala birth at the Zoo since 2000 and the new joey began to emerge from her pouch in January. She will make her first public debut today. San Francisco zookeepers confirmed the birth during a pouch check in December and caught their first glimpse of the bean-sized joey in mid-January. A small hand appeared and over the next few months, little by little, she slowly made her way out of the pouch. It wasn’t until February that the joey made it all the way out and onto her mother’s back.